Agricultural Education. 461 



amount of capital was employed in a trade into whicli improved educa- 

 tion entered. Capital and education combined were entering into the 

 farming business, and one result would inevitably be a diminution of 

 the number of small farms. Men of capital and education would not 

 be satisfied with farms of 100 or 150 acres. This being the case, it 

 would be found that the introduction of machinery which was now 

 requisite for the working of such farms, and the appliances of science 

 in connexion with agriculture, must have full and fair play; if, 

 therefore, that Society desired to be prepared for the great changes in 

 the agricultural world arising from the improvements which were 

 being made, it must, either by co-operation with local Societies or iu 

 some other manner, aim at improving the education of the farmer. If 

 they looked to the advantage of the future farmer, they must endeavour 

 to supply him with science in connexion v/ith agriculture to a much 

 greater extent than it had been suj)plied hitherto. Although, as 

 Mr. Morton remarked at the commencement of his lecture, the harvest 

 only occurred once in the year, yet the prcjiaration for the harvest, 

 and the preparation for the after-croj)S, would be advanced to such 

 an extent by the improvements which were now being made in agri- 

 culture, that the inconveniences of weather, and many of those evils 

 to which farmers had hitherto been subject, would, perhaps, ere long, 

 be in a considerable degree avoided. On these groimds he thought 

 they ought all to aim at securing an improved education for the sons 

 of farmers. 



Dr. Ceisp believed that until the Government established an agri- 

 cultural college, there would never be a j)roper system of education for 

 the agriculturists of this country. He should like to see a college in 

 London, with a regular staff of professors, and a museum attached. 

 Many students would then be enabled to take a degree, and the 

 beneficial effects of such an institution would extend throughout the 

 country. The advantage of giving prizes was very doubtful. At 

 Guy's Hospital the prize system had been discontinued because it T,'as 

 found that when a student had to work himself up almost exclusively 

 on any si)ecial object, the devotion of so much time to that object was 

 injurious to him in after life. 



Professor Coleman said that a man must be educated in the practical 

 details of farming : for unless he was brought up to xmderstand 

 every single point in practice, he would very likely fail to make a 

 profit. While he fully admitted that students should be enabled as 

 far as possible to see a variety of practice, and not be left entirely to 

 the farm on which they were brought up, he maintained that a know- 

 ledge of scientific principles was equally important. If a man was 

 to keep a-head in the present day, he must understand the reason for 

 every detail of practice, and must look carefully at every new process 

 in farming. 



Having had much to do with the education of a great many young- 

 men in the College at Cirencester, where he was formerly a pupil, he 

 had seen the great difficulties under which young men laboured when 

 they had come there without that general preliminary education which 

 alone could enable them to grasp the scientific truths that were pre- 



